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7th dan iaido grading due in

Thursday, 18 February 2010

Iaido 6th Dan Training Session 3

So, not too much progress last night as I was leading the session. I thought I would make the most of the "freedom to play" and got everyone above a certain level to hack through the koryu one form at a time.

In the two hours we completed shoden, chuden and some of okuden tachi waza after asking the seniors to peer review each other for Gyakuto. It was interesting hearing their feedback to each other and understanding what they understood helped me to understand, if you catch my drift.

What was useful was, in training Yukizure and Tsuredachi I have been steered to make the last cut extremely sharp and expedient which has led me to research how to cut off all the unnecessary movement from that point and therefore move quickly without becoming busy. I have had to geometrically plot where the sword needs to be moved to in a straight line so that it is above the head when the head has been moved into the "cut now!" position. This is of course quite true for any form however in these forms it is far more challenging as one is changing directions, moving and cutting pretty much simultaneously. It was interesting to see how the others interpreted the more relaxed grip during kaburi in the okuden forms last night. I have discovered what I think is the right answer in that the inertia of the blade creates a decline in the sword angle as the handle is quickly lifted. This creates a very smooth and continuous cut hopefully and is not the same as simply letting the tip drop while you start to lift the hands. I think this is an important precursor to incorporating inashi into the kaburi.

I now have to work in this sequence of movements into the natural flow of the kata without thinking about it, not easy - I need to get some training time alone to work on this...

Anyway, should get some training time to myself on Saturday when I go to Hilary's class.